bibsy

oh my god, you guys. ut austin mistakenly sent me a rejection email tonight. i responded asking for clarification on whether this meant i'd been removed from their waitlist, and their coordinator sent me two apology emails stressing that this had been an error and that he was sorry for causing me unneeded stress. well, now i feel like ut austin and i are even after i messed up my interview time last month. 🫠

that's incredible! congrats!!

didn't hear anything from yale or iowa re: interviews, so it's all riding on this ut austin waitlist, i think! (unless i happen to nab a fiction acceptance, which i don't suspect will happen. my app was not as strong for those programs, frankly.) kirk is scheduling calls with all the waitlisted candidates, so he and i are speaking next week. would be magnificent to get in this cycle, but if it doesn't happen, i'm very grateful to be building a relationship with the program and will reapply next cycle for sure. 💜

to be fair, based on past results, it looks like iowa sometimes extends offers at the end of an interview call. i don't think that fast turnaround time is out of scope for them. i'm also surprised to see results from them this early on, but it's not unheard of for the outreach timelines of these programs to suddenly experience a drastic shift. i mean, yale used to notify in early february, and that's certainly not the case anymore! don't get me wrong - i'd love for iowa to extend more interview requests, and boy would i be thrilled to learn that more of those are on their way. just want to temper my own expectations, lol.

WashU is also pausing admissions rn. “recent federal guidance that requires careful interpretation” is certainly in regards to recent executive orders declaring no funding will be offered to entities engaged in DEI practices. those orders have been shot down by a federal judge, but the matter will def be escalated to the supreme court, meaning the consequences are just... in limbo. there's been a stringent crackdown on scientific funding, too, which is why WashU is held up - i believe their arts and sciences departments fall under one umbrella? not to mention the existential threat to the DoE. fun times abound.

i've been completely reabsorbed into the the world of the fiction podcast dreamboy, which is probably my favorite piece of art ever made. it's surreal and tender and erotic and breathtaking. i had the chance to hang out with the creator, dane terry, in new york a few weeks ago after admiring his work for the past five years or so, and we had a wonderful time. i'm a real "depth over breadth" kinda gal when it comes to content consumption.

fwiw, if it's an acceptance call, i think you can use it as a chance to celebrate, especially if phone calls aren't your forte. with job offers, for instance, i always express my gratitude and then offer the disclaimer, "i'll have to review the details of the offer over email, as i process information better through writing. when i formulate questions, i'll reach out that way."

i love reading y'all's good news!! congrats to everyone with acceptances!! over on my end, following my interview, i'm holding down a waitlist from UT Austin for playwriting. the head of their program was very kind and offered to schedule a call with me to discuss their process and encourage me to reapply if this year doesn't pan out. otherwise, it looks like iowa playwriting interviewed WAY early this year, so i'm counting that a soft reject. yale is still on the table, and boy oh boy are my fingers desperately crossed. no luck so far on fiction, but if nothing comes of those apps, it's okay! i did not go into this process prepared - it was a last-minute decision following a sudden layoff - and if this isn't my year, i'll take the time to actually workshop samples and shore up a stronger application. rejects/soft rejects so far from uc davis, csu, and ucsd. still waiting on uc irvine (i'm one of those fiction applicants who's still in limbo!), uc riverside, and university of houston. good luck and god speed, friends!!

@Mday and @mranderson97, between the three of us, somebody's gotta elbow their way into a spot! rooting for us. 💜 and congrats on the success with the festival circuit, @atreus85!

according to some others, fiction deliberations are ongoing at irvine, but poetry decisions have been made. since some fiction rejections have already gone out, if you're a fiction applicant for uci and haven't heard anything yet, i'd say it's reasonable to be hopeful! i don't have insight into the other schools, unfortunately.

there's an unofficial "results" page here on gradcafe where people self-report their progress. scroll up to the toolbar at the top, and you can find it right under the "gradcafe" logo.

thank you, guys!! and congrats to you as well, @Mday!! i think iowa is probably real as well, especially since the notice on the results page referenced lisa by name. would be a super weird thing to lie about in a pretty niche community.

thank you! i'm very hard on myself, and this was the school where i had my best shot, so i'm a little bummed - but i know that i'd be celebrating a waitlist for a school that selective if anyone else were telling me the same thing. 💜 i sure wish i had more insight into other schools, lolll! i'm considering iowa a soft reject right now, assuming the reported interview request on the results page is honest. if that was a fluke and more invites roll out around their usual time, then that's a happy surprise. otherwise, my only other remaining school for playwriting is yale, which i am confident enough to hold out hope for but not delusional enough to hang my hat on. all crickets on the yale front so far.

waitlisted at UT Austin. very aware that this is still an accomplishment! but it does sting when the semifinalist pool was quite small, and the implicit understanding post-interview is that applicants at that stage will be sorted into an "accepted" or "waitlisted" bucket. :(( ahhh i am certainly no stranger to this situation, though. i was waitlisted for CMU twice for undergrad and came off the waitlist my second year. and kirk was kind enough to offer a call to discuss their process and to encourage me to reapply next year, which i'm sure i'll take him up on.

thank you so much! and HUGE congrats on your acceptance!! (i love your signature sunflower emoji, btw. so cute.) i'll forge ahead with my tepid optimism, in that case!

anyone have any insight into uc irvine? looks like acceptance calls went out last week, and rejections appeared on the sheet two days ago (2/18) - but no new rejections were added yesterday. i haven't received an email to check my portal, and my app still only shows "submitted." i haven't seen anyone report a waitlist notif from uci, so i'm lightly hopeful that's a possibility without growing too attached to the thought!

wow yeah, that's SUPER early. like... a full month early, lol. i don't anticipate hearing back from iowa until mid-march. EDIT: sifted through past results, and i s'pose it wouldn't be a full month early. looks like iowa usually schedules their calls around march 3 - 5, though they sometimes happen a week later. this would definitely be about 2 weeks early for them, at least. then again, ut austin contacted me pretty early compared to past years, too. (though still no word on if i'm still in the running, ahh.) early outreach might be a trend this cycle.

just got back from ice skating class! i purchased symphony tickets for TWO separate concerts this week - one for $12, one for $24 (ty LA philharmonic CODA program!! i love you LA philharmonic CODA program!) my significant other is on his way over with vegan yellow curry and valentine's day presents! it's a good night!!

writhing a little over here because ut austin said they'd send word on next steps this week, but it's toward eod on friday, and all's quiet in my inbox. 🫠

ugh, i feel this so strongly. especially because i took totally different strategies with my fiction apps vs my playwriting apps. most of the fiction programs i applied to are in california. i'm not as experienced in fiction, so i think i could gain a good deal from a broader swath of programs and prioritized being closer to home. i've lived in socal for about 4.5 years, and i love it here. i have a community i'm reticent to leave and a fairly new romantic relationship that i'm very serious about (though we're both comfortable with long distance; i just don't WANT to be away because i love this person so much!) with playwriting, though?? l o l, i only applied to ut austin, yale, and iowa, because those are the three programs that really resonate with me and that i'm confident would elevate my existing body of professional work. but that means i'm staring down a three-pronged fork in the road: path 1: study fiction in-state path 2: study playwriting somewhere across the country path 3: grad school's not in the cards, keep on the job hunt grind honestly, i'm kinda hoping i ONLY find myself accepted to either fiction programs or ONLY find myself accepted to playwriting programs so that i don't have to weigh all the lifestyle factors. there would be worse problems to have, obviously, and it's not like i anticipate being spoiled for choice! but i have created quite a massive divide in possible futures for myself, haha

i started taking ice skating lessons two years ago, and i spent 3 hours on the ice today, l o l.

i can provide perspective from my undergrad experience. 💜 i have a bfa in theatre (directing, specifically), and the audition/application process for bfa theatre students is a pretty decent mirror for the mfa creative writing process. in 2015, i think my final count was either 14 or 16 applications/auditions?? my results shook out to 1 acceptance, 2 waitlists, and the rest were a clean sweep of rejections. i was rejected from programs i was sure i'd be accepted to - but 1 of my waitlists was from the most prestigious school on my list (carnegie mellon). the next year, i applied to transfer only to cmu. i was waitlisted again - but this time, i came off the waitlist! and i adored my undergraduate program, unabashedly. i was a very successful student there and never felt like i was behind the rest of my cohort. one of my best friends had a similar experience: rejected absolutely everywhere but accepted at cmu. it's a different field and a different context, but the principle is similar. the process is so subjective, and trying to predict what schools will connect with your work is like shotty divination.

looks like it's consistent with past years, from the little data we've got on them - there's an acceptance from 2024 for feb. 7, which was also a wednesday. seems like waitlist notifs come out a little later (exactly one week, in the last cycle). nervous because i felt like that was a program where i had one of my best shots for creative writing! i know i'm a stronger playwriting candidate, but i only applied to three playwriting programs at superrr competitive institutions, so trying to remain calm!

darn, just realized that someone posted a uc davis acceptance on the draft spreadsheet yesterday! i can't imagine they're spreading those out over multiple days lol, so time to cross my fingers for a waitlist. congrats to the person accepted if you're here!!

i would say to remember that no one is trying to trick you. these are people who passionately want to build a cohort they can guide over the next 2 - 3 years, and they're hoping to learn that you are the right fit. i think i was surprised by how "easy" the questions were: what's inspiring you creatively, what do you want to get out of grad school, what's a challenge you've overcome, what's your process like when collaborating with others... it didn't feel like a test i needed to prepare for. this committee is asking you to share what you should already know about yourself without incredible deliberation. i'm still articulate and confident when i'm off-balance, but i'm less succinct than i might otherwise be. if anything, i'd say, based on my own shortcomings, be comfortable with brevity. consider who you are as an artist and how you can communicate those principles as directly as possible.